Miami's Crime Stars On `Oprah'

Show Paints Picture Of Accused Trio In Tourist's Slaying

September 14, 1993|By NANCY SAN MARTIN Staff Writer

MIAMI — Miami's violence was the star on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Monday.

As the show was taped at Bayside Marketplace on the shore of Biscayne Bay with the MacArthur Causeway arching in the background, Winfrey used last week's slaying of tourist Uwe-Wilhelm Rakebrand to illustrate violence sweeping Miami and other cities.

"You are looking at a highway in the heart of Miami, where a 33-year-old German tourist was gunned down," Winfrey said, opening a show she brought here from its Chicago home for Monday's broadcast. "Although we are here in Miami. We could be in any city. This is a wake-up call."

Describing Rakebrand as "hunted prey," Winfrey coaxed a menu of concerns from an audience of 500, who faulted law enforcement and politicians for letting crime get out of hand.

Winfrey said she came to Miami to remind people crime is their problem.

"The more you can remind people of what needs to be done, the better," she said. "My hope is that the citizens of Miami will decide that this has to stop."

The show painted a picture of the accused killers behind the crime that has captured headlines around the world.

Vera Hood, the adopted mother of Patsy Lakisha Jones, who police say pulled the trigger that killed Rakebrand, said her daughter told her "we shot a man."But, Hood said, her daughter said she thought the gun would not fire.

Cathey Hazelhurst, mother of Ricondall Wiggins, blamed her son's involvement in the crime on Jones. She said Wiggins turned himself in when police came looking.

Both women said their children should accept whatever punishment they get - even, Hazelhurst said, if it's death.

The audience had little sympathy for Wiggins, Jones or Alvin Hunter, who also is charged in the killing. "She shot him," someone yelled. "She's the murderer."

Winfrey was accused by some members of the audience of capitalizing on South Florida's much-publicized tourist murder.

"I'm not a sensationalist, and I don't believe in sensationalism," Winfrey said. "I think what happened to that tourist on the highway is sensational.

"I don't believe in exploitation, but I think [Rakebrand) was exploited."

A rumor spread after Winfrey left Bayside that someone had thrown a smoke bomb in her limousine. Untrue, said a show spokeswoman: Actually, the limo's air conditioner malfunctioned.

Among Winfrey's guests was Tom Walsh, a tourist from Chicago, who also was attacked and robbed two days before Rakebrand's slaying. Jones, Wiggins and Hunter were charged during the weekend with robbing Walsh, who identified the trio as his attackers.

Winfrey told Mayor Xavier Suarez people were tired of waiting for solutions from politicians: "It seems to me that politicians, they put a Band-Aid" on the problem.

Suarez, who was booed repeatedly, came back with suggestions of mentor programs, jobs secured for high school graduates with near-perfect attendance, beefed up police patrols and longer sentences for offenders.

Tension cut the humid air at Bayside when Winfrey and Hazelhurst noted that crime does not only plague tourists, but also those who live and work in Miami and other cities.

"It happens too much," Hazelhurst said. "It doesn't only happen to the tourists; it happens to the citizens. I could be the next victim."